The Rings of Power introduced fans to the Second Age of Middle Earth of the Lord of the Rings franchise. But what's next for Galadriel or Sauron? Here's everything we know about The Rings of Power season 2, including a release date expectation, which cast members will likely make their return and more!
With the first season of The Rings of Power, we learned that it's not just power that makes Sauron such a dangerous antagonist but also cunning. We watched the story of him tricking the races of Middle Earth into forging the Rings of Power as well as Ash Nazg (that's what the One Ring is called in the Black Speech). Now, it's time to see the next stage of his plan!
Here is everything we know about The Rings of Power season 2, including the release date expectation and more!
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 | Release Date Expectation
The huge success of the Lord of the Rings spin-off speaks for itself. And considering daddy Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, is a huge LotR fan himself, it doesn't come as a huge surprise that season 2 of Rings of Power is already in the works.
Although filming concluded before the SAG-AFTRA strike that turned out to be a huge problem for other productions, Rings of Power season 2 will most likely air in late 2024, maybe even 2025.
In an interview with Collider, Vernon Sanders (Amazon Studios Head of Television) also shared that filming went much better than in the first season – it didn't take so long, and they could learn a lot for season 2, so he's pretty confident it won't take forever for the show to hit the streaming service. But even with a smoother ride in season 2, Sander was careful not to say too much about a possible season 3.
There have been some conversations about Season 3, and we are making some investments to make sure that we are ready for Season 3. [...] I'm confident that we'll be making many more seasons to come, but we'll announce Season 3 when we're ready, even as we continue to put stakes in the ground for that.
Rings of Power Season 2 | Returning Cast
The finale of the first season got us some pretty memorable moments. If you somehow haven't caught up on the show until now: you shall not pass, for there are slight spoilers ahead.
Halbrand has been outed as Sauron in disguise, and so with that cleared up, it's pretty safe to say Charlie Vickers will reprise his role. Same thing with lovely Morfydd Clark – sure, she didn't have the best time lately as Galadriel, but there's no way she won't make Sauron pay.
To top it all off, Daniel Weyman as The Stranger has been revealed to be a huge deal. Not having him return for season 2 would be a crime against everything that's good and holy in Middle-earth, so we're pretty confident we'll see him again.
The cast in Rings of Power is obviously huge. Usually, such big productions try their hardest to keep their actors, so it's more likely than not that most of the cast of season 1 will return – if their character was alive at the end of Season 1, of course. The only currently known recast is Orc leader Adar: Joseph Mawle, who will be replaced by Sam Hazeldine.
And as if the cast wasn't already big enough, there will be lots and lots of new faces and characters in season 2, including these fine folks:
- Yasen Atour
- Ben Daniels
- Nicholas Woodeson
- Amelia Kenworthy
- Nia Towle
- Gabriel Akuwudike
- Selina Lo
- Will Keen
- Kevin Eldon
And that's not even all of them. Oliver Alvin-Wilson will be joining, as well as Gavi Singh Chera, William Chubb, Calam Lynch and Stuart Bowman. Such an extensive cast surely is one way to spend the bonkers budget they have for the show, and we can't wait to see how it goes!
The Rings of Power Season 2: What Will The Plot Be?
Plot-wise, there are a bunch of things we pretty much already know will happen.
As we mentioned before, the plot will likely revolve around Sauron's next step in world domination, after the first season showed him tricking the Elves into forging the Rings of Power.
Will will probably also dive a little deeper into the origins of the Hobbits and the Shire, as the show probably included that sub-plot for a good reason. Our best bet is, that the show plans to explain why the Hobbits are so resistant to the One Rings corruption (besides Smeagol, I guess).
So far, there is no official synopsis, though, so all we have so far are educated guesses.
We'll make sure to keep you posted on all further developments. Rest assured we'll update you as soon as there's a release date, a trailer, or whatever else they may have in store!
Need to pass the time until season 2 hits? Sure you do.